A Blast To Brennan's Past
by WritingMind
Summary: The full story of Brennan's past, starting the winter her parents disappeared and leading into the future. Will she be the person you thought she was in her past or completely different? Find out...
1. Chapter 1

_**Here is the first chapter of what will be Temperance Brennan's entire past. Please R&R.**_

"Temperance!" called a curt voice from the front of the room. A woman wearing a hideous, grey, wool skirt, large glasses worn lower than the bride of her nose, a paisley, button-down shirt complete with frilly collar and tucked into the revolting skirt, and a bright read sweater worn over the shirt, although she kept her arms out of the sleeves, stood at the front of the room with a stern, glaring look on her face.

"Huh?!" asked the girl the woman had referred to. She had been lost in a daydream about the coming weekend. Her parents were taking her brother, Russ, and her skiing. They had said the cold weather called for it. It was now late December and the full storm of winter was fast approaching.

"Number twelve, Temperance," she stated, glaring at the girl. 'That girl will never amount to anything. Never turns in her homework or keeps her head in on the discussions,' thought Miss Jainkette, Temperance Brennan's English teacher.

"Oh," she said quietly, flipping through her notes for the answer to the question. "I think I misplaced that question," she said, looking up with a pained expression at her teacher. 'She thinks I'll never amount to anything. She's wrong,' thought Temperance.

"Very well, do number thirteen for us then," said her teacher, the redness in her cheeks boiling, ready to simmer or spill over the top depending on the response she got.

"I misplaced that one, too," Temperance said quietly.

That was the final straw. The teacher's eyes just about bulged so far out of her head they looked ready to pop out. The redness in her face had changed to purple and the veins in her neck were about to burst.

"Stay after class, Ms. Brennan," she stated calmly, despite her currently vicious mood.

Tempe winced at the words but slowly nodded. Suddenly she heard the window across the room open slightly.

"Marco?" a voice asked from outside. The voice was rough, but had an indescribable 'cool'-ness to it. Her face immediately lit up, a light behind her grey eyes flickering on, a smile spreading across her face. She glanced towards the window, trying not to get her hopes up to high, but she had recognized the voice from the single word he had spoken. At the slight glimpse of her brother her head whipped towards the source of the chilling air now flowing into the classroom. Her brother stood there in a leather jacket that only made him look cooler.

"Polo!" she replied with enthusiasm. He grinned back at her before closing the window and disappearing into the darkness of the winter day.

"Ms. Brennan, please try to concentrate on your studies rather than your brother's tactics of getting himself into trouble!" her teacher yelled at her sternly. Tempe's head turned back to her teacher with a frown. She nodded slowly before turning back to her notebook and doodling until the bell rang. She pushed her books into a small stack and tried to rush out of the room before the ugly woman could stop her but it was no use.

"Ms. Brennan," called the curt voice from the desk near the chalkboard. She slowly turned her head towards the teacher and edged her feet to the desk.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Ms. Brennan, you have no hope of ever being anything. You will be a failure your entire life. I still expect you to do the work in some form and pay attention in my class."

"Yes, Miss Jainkette," she replied with her usual words at any of these after-class meetings. She waited patiently for the 'you are dismissed' that usually followed.

"I'm not sure you understand, Ms. Brennan. I do have control over you. Your parents don't know about your horrible grades but if you disappoint me one more time they will. And a detention will come with it," she said with a curt smile. "You are dismissed."

A scared look crossed over her eyes before they went back to their normal emotionless stare. Slowly she nodded, before running out of the classroom.

_**I'll hopefully be able to post the next chapter tomorrow. I plan on this being very long since how much information it has to include. Reviews are greatly appreciated, especially with this being the first chapter.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**This chapter is dedicated to Bonegee, 9ud9ir190ne6ad, and Arcadya. Thank you for your reviews:) Please R&R!**_

'Last year was so easy. I was on the honor-roll, class president, and in just about every club. And then there was this year. I have to pull my grades up. My parents will be really disappointed if they don't get to put another bumper sticker on the car,' she thought, the last sentence somewhat sarcastic but at the same time she knew he parents would be disappointed. She walked past the family car kicking the bumper sticker as she passed. Their yard was covered by a few inches of snow but nothing major. She glanced at the snow but turned her thoughts away from the beautiful winter precipitation that sat in her yard. 'At least you're passing biology and chem. Who needs English class anyway?' Through the first window up the walk she could see a warm fire billowing in the fireplace. 'It can't be Mom or Dad; they don't get off work for at least an hour yet,' she told herself, a confused look on her features. The fact that the car was there didn't mean anything. Her father carpooled with a few of the other teachers to save energy and her mother walked to work, the library being only a few blocks from their house in Chicago. She silently eased the door open and glanced inside to see both of her parents sitting in their living room. 'This can't be good.' She was as silent as possible but with one squeak of a floorboard in the old house her parents' gaze turned toward her. Surprisingly their gaze was warm and their features soft. They glanced at each other nervously before indicating for Temperance to join them.

"Honey, you know how we had plans to go skiing this weekend?" her mother asked in a gentle voice. She nodded slowly. 'It's completely like them to break off our plans. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up.'

Christine Brennan noticed the change in her daughter immediately and knew what the girl was expecting. "Well, we're going to move the plans back a weekend. Your father and I are going to be busy this weekend. We have a lot to get done for Christmas. I know you were expecting us to be canceling on you and I'm sorry to disappoint you but we're not canceling," she said with a laugh at the end. Temperance's mood immediately turned back to calm at her parents' words and she nodded slowly. 'What's one weekend? As long as we get to go,' she thought to herself with an inward grin. She grabbed her bag and ran up the stairs to attempt her English homework. 'I'll get my grades up,' was her last thought before venturing into the messy room that belonged to her. She immediately gathered all the clothes strewn around the room and threw them into the laundry basket. She cleaned up a bit, trying to not leave to big of a mess lying around in her room. She tried not to let anybody see just how unorganized she really was.

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The rest of the week dragged on before Saturday arrived. Temperance squinted, opening her eyes to the sunlight streaming into her room from the window behind her head. She blinked slowly before hearing the rustling in the hallway. She heard someone saying, "Where's my dolphin belt?" And another voice reply, "Top drawer, Christine."

'An early start. I wonder what they're planning on getting while they're out…' she thought, letting her mind wander as she slowly sat up in her bed. She felt a small pain in the pit of her stomach and realized she had fallen asleep without dinner last night. She hopped out of the bed and took the stairs two at a time, arriving in the kitchen in the time it usually took her to get out of her room.

The now open cabinet revealed her choices for breakfast. A bagel, fruit loops, frosted flakes, pancakes, eggs in the fridge, or English muffins. She decided on the fruit loops and pulled the box out from between the frosted flakes and pancake mix. The small bowl was quickly filled as she shook the fruitloops from the box into it. Grabbing a spoon, she sat at the island in the middle of the kitchen before beginning to eat. Her parents walked down moments not even noticing her sitting there.

"Hey!" she said with a smile. They turned to look at her, surprised anyone was up yet.

"Hey, honey," her father replied with a grin. "We're going to go out for a while. We'll call you later. There's food in the fridge for lunch. Bye, sweetie!" He then rushed his wife out the front door. Brennan walked to the window to watch them go. They waved and laughed as they pulled away, she mirroring their movements from her place in the kitchen. Then she went back to the island and continued munching on her fruit loops.

Her brother came down about a half hour later, his hair messy and shaggy and his eyes barely open. He grinned at her as he got out the pancake mix and turned on the stove. He set a pan down and made the mix before pouring it into the pan and putting the pan on top of the heat now emanating from the stove. He grabbed the spatula in the pot that held all their larger cooking implements and began flipping the pancake.

"I'm going to go out for the day. Probably get into some trouble; maybe take Jenna out to lunch. I should be home this afternoon. Don't get into any trouble while I'm gone," he said, ruffling her hair before pouring a glass of milk and taking his pancake to the table that also sat in their kitchen. He ate it quickly and set the dirty plate and cup in the sink, expecting his sister to put them in the dishwasher for him. Then he went back upstairs. Moments later he walked back down wearing the same leather jacket he always did, a sweatshirt underneath, and a pair of jeans. He said, "See ya later, Tempe," before walking out the door.

_**Next chapter should be up later today! Thank you to all those who have reviewed or will review in the future. I hope to dedicate chapters to some of the people who give reviews. Thanks for reading. Please review.**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**This chapter is dedicated to jess.stretch. Thanks for the advice, I'll be sure to do it this time around. To babysteps, no, Booth will not be in this until it is time for him to come in. This will be entirely realistic. He will come in in the first case where he gets Temperance mad at him and she doesn't want to work with him anymore but not until then. She still has to finish high school, go to college, learn from Dr. Styers(Michael), go to a whole bunch of places to identify people and THEN Booth will come in. Just thought I'd clarify. Please R&R.**_

**Three Days Later**

"No! It can't be our car!" Tempe yelled, lying on her bed sobbing into the pillow she clutched in her arms.

"Tempe, it had your sticker on the bumper and it was the exact model as ours, even matched the license plate number. It's our car," Russ said gently from the doorway.

"But Mom and Dad weren't in it. They could still be alive," she whimpered, trying to tell herself more than Russell.

"There's a possibility," he said quietly, not really believing there was but not letting this feeling shine through in his voice. He laid a hand firmly against his sister's shoulder before pulling her into a hug. "It'll be okay, Temperance," he whispered, his warm breath batting at her neck, causing a shiver up her spine in the cold air. She always kept her room colder than the rest of their house. "They took the car to the impound lot. They say that we can keep the house and I can keep taking care of you until you're eighteen," he said reassuringly.

She just continued to sob into her pillow. Finally turning away from the soaking pillow, her eyes red and puffy and her face tear-stained, she looked up at Russ with pure fear on her face. The pain that was ripping through her chest was indescribable. It felt like every limb had been torn apart and her organs had rearranged themselves. There was a searing pain in her heart and her head felt like it was going to burst but she just continued to look at Russ.

A detective walked into the room and said, "We'll set up a missing persons file and see what we can do but with this kind of thing we can't make much of an investigation. We will give you a file on your parents once all the paper work has been filled out."

"Yeah, thanks," Russell said before motioning for the man to leave the room.

"As long as their bodies don't turn up there's still hope that they're alive. We don't even know what happened," Temperance told herself over and over again. Russ now held her in his arms as she lay on his lap. She told herself this again and again until she fell asleep in his arms.

_**Short chapter, I know. I hope to update later today though, so no worries. The next chapter will most likely be Christmas. Reviews are always GREATLY appreciated!**_


	4. Chapter 4

**_This chapter is dedicated to Mockingbird84 and bb-4ever. Sorry this chapter took so long, life got busy. Here you go!_**

Chilling air greeted Russell as he opened his eyes to the bright red light of his clock. 2:53 a.m. He sighed as he ran a hand down his face. He ran the same hand through his hair, before shuffling his feet to the bathroom. The dusty mirror allowed him only a fuzzy image of himself as he splashed some cold water on his features before sliding back to his room. The room was dark as he slipped over the sweat pants and t-shirt he had worn to bed and pulled on a new t-shirt, jeans, and his leather jacket. His head appeared in the hallway as he glanced toward Tempe's room. Pure and beautiful silence. Without sound, he stepped past her door and down the steps into the foyer below. The hinge4s creaked as he opened the hallway's closet. Feeling around on the shelf above the coat rack, he found several boxes of green wire and pulled them down without much effort.

He slid the boxes into the living room like a bowling ball, where, late the night before, he had set up the fake tree they used every year. He spun on his heel and walked lightly into the kitchen, to the basement door, and down the stairs.

_Clunk…clunk…clunk…_The sound of his footsteps rebounded against the concrete walls of their un-finished basement. It was musty and reeked of cobwebs. He pulled a cord and a fluorescent light bulb switched on, creating a dim glow that just barely lit the room. A tall stack of boxes were set off to one corner where you wouldn't usually notice them and in a more noticeable position another few boxes were placed on a shelf. He grabbed the second stack first and 'clunked' back up the stairway.

He immediately set to work, starting with the lights on the tree and around the room and then continuing on to the ornaments he had brought up from the basement. An hour later the tree sparkled and there was a warm glow that filled the room. He took a step back to admire his handy-work but it was a short lived pride as he knew there was still one more stack of boxes sitting in the basement, awaiting there turn to be brought up. He 'clunked' back down the stairs and, more quietly this time, 'clunked' back up, knowing that, as morning neared, Tempe began to sleep less and less soundly. As he passed through the kitchen with a stack of boxes nearly as tall as himself he glanced at the microwave clock.

4:36 a.m. He sighed, knowing he had at least two hours yet before she woke up. Temperance was always an early riser. As he passed through the foyer he noticed that it had began snowing outside. He grinned at the sight before he continued his blind journey back into the living room where he nearly tripped over a stray box of ornaments. As he retained his balance he set the boxes down and began arranging them under the tree.

Fifteen minutes later he was finished and now brewing coffee in the kitchen, assuring himself that he wouldn't fall asleep before she made it down the stairs.

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Tempe woke up in a cold sweat, though she didn't remember the dream that had caused it. She assumed it was the one that kept reoccurring, the one that imagined what had happened to her parents. Sometimes they were murdered; sometimes they just went out one day and decided not to come back for her. She could never tell which one was worse. She squinted at the wall clock opposite her bed. 6:45, later than she usually slept especially with the nightmares. The sheets that had covered her the night before were now strewn about the room. 'I haven't slept soundly in a while. I guess I was really thrashing around last night though,' she thought, noticing that one sheet was several feet away from her bed.

Glancing out the window next to her wall clock she noted it was flurrying out and that the night before a few inches of snow had accumulated on her windowsill. 'It's freezing in here,' she thought although she didn't spring to pull some of the sheets on the ground around her. She enjoyed the coldness. Her eyes had the same deadness to them as they had since the detective told her that her parents were missing. Everyone had noticed, her teachers, her brother, anyone who knew her well enough to notice a drastic change. She was different; there was no other way to describe it.

Her bare feet pressed against the hard wood flooring in her room as she stepped slowly toward her door to get some breakfast. Warmth greeted her face as she propped the door open. It wasn't much heat but it was definitely warmer than her room. She stepped down the stairs as they creaked in protest. 'Russ is probably still asleep. I can't imagine he got past these stairs without me noticing. But Russ has lots of tricks. Maybe he'll make us some scrambled eggs for breakfast,' she thought as she continued down the steps.

As she stepped down into the foyer she noticed an odd glow coming from the living room. She glanced in to see a glistening tree, lit by both white and colored lights. The room, too, was covered in tiny light bulbs, strung together on green wire. Presents were placed under the tree, the sizes varying. Some were for Russ; she could see his name on many of them, even from this far away. But she saw just as many for her.

She glanced around to the arm chairs where she expected to see her parents. Only one was filled by a beaming Russell. She gasped and her eyes filled with tears. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish until the tears started to flow. Russell's smile slowly faded into a frown. She ran out and back up to her room and Russ's facial expression changed to hurt.

**_Next chapter should be up tomorrow. Reviews always appreciated._**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Here's the next chapter! I'm really tired so if it's a little off, I'm sorry. ;) I hope you enjoy!**_

Russ gently brushed the hair away from Tempe's face as she slept soundly, curled up in her bed, the sheets strewn about the room. Then he frowned, his decision already made. He wouldn't back down now. She didn't want him and he was wasting his time here. He watched as she involuntarily scratched her forehead where his fingers had previously been. Then her arm went limp again and she was lost in sleep. He watched her intently; waiting to see if she would wake up, stop him from doing what he was about to do. But she didn't; she just continued to sleep, unaware of the nightmare that would greet her when she awoke. That was Tempe's story, tragedy after tragedy. She had no idea that one day, just one man would be able to change the ending of her story forever. But he wouldn't come until much later. For now she lay in unmerciful sleep, her nightmares attacking her from all angles.

Russ watched her for a few more moments, burning her image into his mind. "Please forgive me sis. I know you'd rather be alone than with me," he whispered softly before kissing her on the forehead and slipping out into the hallway. The house was silent as he made his way down the steps and into the foyer.

The light blue painting of the room seemed dark as the moon, now high in the sky, cast shadows everywhere. He pulled his warmest jacket on over his usual leather one and grabbed his keys off the hook. He held them carefully, not allowing them to jingle as he cracked open the front door. A burst of wind made contact and he had to react quickly to stop the door from slamming against the wall. The house shook slightly before settling in again without a sound.

He shuffled his feet out into the dead of winter. Although it wasn't snowing and the cold was warmer than usual, it still bit at him with amazing force. He sighed as he pulled the door shut behind him, with more effort than was usually needed thanks to the wind. He glanced up at the window that belonged to Temperance's room and felt his eyes water slightly before he pulled the tears back with a few blinks. He pushed himself onward, towards his car, with only the thought of how Tempe hated his guts in his head.

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Temperance woke to the sound of a loud engine revving. She slid out of bed to see whose car it was although she had faintly recognized the unique rev of her brother's car. She had no idea where he might be going at this hour. Without thinking she ran out of her room and raced down the stairs, practically tripping over herself and nearly breaking her neck as she gathered herself together at the bottom. She slowly stood and again began running, this time into the kitchen where she accidentally slid past her destination. As she walked back to it, avoiding anything that would postpone her questions. She looked out the window as her only family member still alive, or so she thought, left her too. He drove away without a glancing at their house and she immediately knew he wasn't coming back. She fell backwards into a chair and began crying into her folded arms as she pulled her knees up to her chest and rocked like a baby, waiting for someone to comfort her although she knew no one would come to do so.

After a long time of just crying the thought that she was alone in the house with an unlocked front door and no big brother to protect her finally got to her and she made herself stand and walk to the phone. She slowly realized she didn't have anyone to call and stifled a cry before dialing the only number and only choice she had left.

'9-1-1.' She heard the tone as the phone rang at the police station.

"9-1-1, what is your emergency?" asked the annoyingly kind voice of a police department phone operator.

"I'm Tempe Brennan. Both my parents recently died and my brother just left me alone in the house. I have nowhere to go," she said, holding back the sea of emotions that was threatening to drown her.

"Please hold," said the voice as elevator music filled the room, emanating from the phone.

'Damn it!' she thought to herself. 'Stupid phone operators.' Then she waited in silence, only hinted with a bit of elevator music, for her call to be redirected. She waited for almost an hour, just standing there, not moving an inch, before a voice came onto the phone. It was deep and husky but had a tad of kindness added to it.

"Hello, Tempe. I'll be at your house in five minutes. You can stay with me for the night. We'll work everything out in the morning," said the familiar voice of the man who had 'worked' on her parents' case.

She nodded slowly before realizing he couldn't see her and answering with a small, "Yes." Then she hung up the phone and waited to be taken into a new chapter of her life that wouldn't be any better than the one she was currently in.

_**I live for your reviews so please send some!! It would make my day!!**_


	6. Chapter 6

**_Okay. I left for about a year. I needed some time to deal with Real life but here I am back again. I had the biting sensation today to write some more for this. So here I am. This chapter is rather long. I'll hopefully be able to do the next chapter soon. I won't disappear, I promise. I'll try and keep you guys updated. As always R&R is GREATLY appreciated as it's really you guys I'm writing for, not myself. Hope you enjoy this next chapter in Brennan's life._**

The warm blankets formed a cocoon around Tempe, a barrier to all the terrible happenings of the previous days

The warm blankets formed a cocoon around Tempe, a barrier to all the terrible happenings of the previous days. She hadn't slept but she had let her mind wander to things that didn't have anything to do with family. How could she sleep? Last time she had slept, Russ had left. Now she feared what else might leave it she fell asleep. She felt like she had nothing left to lose. That was why she feared losing something so much. She tried to remember last night's happening in her head. Her brother had left. She remembered that most clearly. She had called 911. They had kept her on hold. Then he had answered and she had waited. It had seemed like forever though she knew it had probably just been about five minutes. He arrived, gave her a hug, reassured her things would be alright like Russ had when there parents had died (a pang hit her), ushered her into the car, drove for a ways, arrived at his house, he had pulled out the couch to form a bed, and now she lay here replaying those same scenes over and over.

She tried to remember what day it was. Christmas was… yesterday? Wow, was it only yesterday? She couldn't decide how long she had been laying there and had no notion of whether she had drifted off to sleep at all. She really had no clue what day it was.

Now she thought back to last night. Had she cried? No, she didn't think so. Had she spoke after the phone call? She only remembered giving slight nods in the car. Had the light in her eyes died? Yes. It had died with both her parents and with her brother's departure.

She couldn't see what was coming. She didn't know what would happen to her. She hated this. She didn't feel like greeting this day or any other one, but lucky for us she did because other wise this would be the end of a great saga. She rustled the covers, trying to find a way out. Finally she did and then stood up and, although not knowing where anything was, found her way to the bathroom and then the kitchen. The lights were off but a man sat at the table, his face in his hands, rubbing his eyes and massaging the bridge of his nose. She knocked quietly on the frame of the doorway. His eyes darted upwards, his head following in succession. "Tempe, you're up," he said. It was a statement though it came off as a question. His name was Matt; Matthew Jamison, actually. He was the one who had been working on her parents disappearance, or the only person she knew who was working on it. "Yes," she replied, as though answering the question in his voice.

"We've got a lot ahead of us, don't we?" he asked, trying to share a smile with the poor girl.

"I suppose so," she answered, her eyes darting around examining the room. There was silence for a few minutes then, "He didn't leave because of me, did he?" Her bottom lip quivered but she bit it and it stopped after a moment of pain. She refused to show weakness. It was only a question.

"No, Tempe. It wasn't you. He was scared and nervous. It was too much for him to handle. Mom and dads take care of kids; they're old enough for the responsibility. He was just a kid like you. He wasn't ready."

"Then why did my parents leave? They were supposed to stay. They were supposed to take care of us. Why didn't they stay?" Her voice was rising and her eyes were burning. Her stomach muscles contracted and a lump formed in her throat. Her eyes were searching but they knew they would find no answer.

He looked at her, his eyes cloudy. "They didn't want to leave you or your brother, Tempe. It wasn't their choice. They weren't planning on getting into a car crash that morning it just happened. You're allowed to be mad at them for leaving you like this. It's natural to feel that way. I wish this hadn't happened to you. You're a great kid. You didn't deserve this. You're smart, an A student," his words stung her; "You're talented. You're going to do great things. This shouldn't have happened but it did and now we have to count our losses and find someway to move on."

She looked at him. Tears were strolling down the contours in her face now, making their way around her defined cheek bones. _It's natural to feel that way. If that's natural then maybe I don't want to feel at all._ She knew her thoughts were unrealistic but she didn't realize that they would shape the basis for the rest of her life, or at least for the majority of it. She stayed quiet for a long while then asked, "What are the plans for the day?"

"We have to go get some of your stuff, then we have to go fill out forms at the foster agency. You can stay here until they place you somewhere. I'll give you my direct number before you go live with them. If anything goes wrong you can just call me there…" He kept going on about the number but all Temperance was thinking about was having to go back to that house. She couldn't do it.

"I can't go…" she said, taking a short, sharp breath. "I can't go back to that house." Her breathing became more frantic and at seeing this he was out of his chair and over to her faster than Roadrunner. He had a firm hand placed on each shoulder and he had bent down to her level, as he was quite a bit taller.

"Calm down, Temperance. You don't have to go back there. I'll just swing by and grab some of your stuff. No worries," he said.

"I don't want any of that stuff. I don't want anything to do with it. It will only bring memories with it…" Her breathing was quick and heaving and gasping. She seemed to be hyperventilating or maybe just on the verge of doing so.

"That's fine, Tempe," he said forcing her eyes to meet his. "We'll add that to our list of things to do. We'll go out and buy lots of new clothes today, okay?" He hoped this would calm her.

"Yes," she replied through gasps for air but slowly, very slowly her breathing returned to normal.

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Filling out the paperwork had taken longer then either of them had expected. There were so many questions and eventually they had to leave some unanswered as the answers were unbeknownst to them. There were the basics of "Hair color?" "Eye color?" "Full name?" etc. But there were some pretty obscure ones too. And so they had sat in a room assigned to them filling out question after question and ignoring the ones they didn't know. When they were finished both were suffering from acute arthritis.

They had then proceeded to the mall where Tempe bought new everything, though with little excitement as it only reminded her of what she was leaving behind. It had been a terrible day and the following one was not much better. Apparently there had been a shortage of foster care children lately because Temperance was quickly placed in a home with five other foster children. She didn't want to leave Matt. She wished he could have simply become her guardian but knew there was no hope in that.

"I don't want to go," she whispered in the car on their drive to the house.

"I know, Tempe. But there's nothing we can do. You need a place to stay. I'll come visit every weekend or every other weekend or something like that. We'll work it out. We'll go to an amusement park sometime or something. It's all going to be good," he said reassuringly, though keeping his eyes on the road.

"What's your phone number?" she asked. He had promised his phone number when he had first told her she was going to have to live somewhere else.

"Oh, right," he replied. He paused for a moment, searching the databanks in his head for the answer. "997-2153" His answer was slow and drawn out. He took a small pause between each number, like he was unsure whether to give her the number or not. "Try to make this place work, okay?"

She nodded and was quiet the rest of the drive.

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April and Collin Mers were good people. They had five foster children and were going on their sixth. They had really wanted their last one to be a boy though Temperance seemed to need a family and they couldn't ignore that. They had a lovely large house, big enough for each child to have his or her own room. Their lives were very easy. Collin was an optometrist; April was a stay at home mother. They were very well endowed (i.e. they had lots of money) and lived happy lives. Their five children had been with them since they were young and it was an anomaly that they would foster a fifteen year old but they had and so now they were here, waiting for her to arrive with no clue whatsoever of what was to come.

A knock on the door, a ring of the bell, Collin got up to answer the door. He opened and saw a young girl standing next to a tall man. "Hello, Mr. Jamison," Collin said, stretching forth his hand to shake the other man's. They shook and then retracted their arms. "You must be Temperance," he said. "The other kids have been dying to meet you." She wasn't quite so sure how dying they could have been seeing as they only found out yesterday she was in the system but she let it go and nodded without any emotion playing across her face. "Come on in. You two can say your goodbyes and then we'll show you around."

"So soon?" she asked, her face looked worried as she turned to Matt.

"Well, we wouldn't want you to miss the fun tonight. It's family game night!" April replied.

They may have seemed like the perfect family but to Temperance it seemed like they were trying to torture her. Matt tried to give her a smile. He pulled her into a tight hug and she clung to him tightly. "You have my number," he whispered into her ear. "Call any time." And she would. She would call that number over and over again and never get an answer. But that's for later. He left. He wished her good luck, told her to try and have some fun. He really had no idea what to say to her though. She took her bags up to her room. It was light purple with a weird flower design bordering on the top. It was kind of sparse compared to the other rooms but she assumed that it had been sort of short notice anyway. She kept telling herself things would get better. She started to unpack, thinking of everything she was leaving behind.

**_Next chapter won't be nearly as long but I had a lot of free time tonight. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it. Please, please R&R 3 It will be GREATLY appreciated on my part._**


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